


Fever Dreams

by iLibra



Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: David has to take care of him, Fever Kisses, Hal is sick, I'm so bad at tagging, M/M, MGS Prompts, Philanthropy, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 17:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5834818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iLibra/pseuds/iLibra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hal really didn't plan on getting sick all of a sudden, but Snake is there to care for him. The fever is getting higher and so is Hal's grasp on what is reality and what is just a fever dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Wirtten for the prompt: "Hal gets the flu and Dave has to take care of him."

“I'm gonna go to sleep. Don't stay up for too long, Hal.” David said, poking his head in the room, where Hal was working on his computer. Hal sighed and let his gaze wander from his bright screen over to David's judging eyes.

"I won't. Don't worry. Good night." Hal tried to reassure him, carelessly waving a hand in his direction. Giving him one last worried look, David closed the door behind him and went to his own room. Hal went back to work, thinking about pulling an all nighter despite what Snake had just told him. He wanted to finish this project as soon as possible. After diligently typing out a few more lines of code, Hal decided that it was way too hot in his room and made his way to the window. He opened it wide and breathed in happily, enjoying the fresh, cold air. He left the window open, wanting to enjoy the clean air awhile longer, and sat back down at his desk, refocusing his attention on the computer. What he didn't plan on, though, was falling asleep in his office chair with the window wide open.

The first thing he noticed when he woke up the next morning, was that it seemed way too soon for him to wake up. It was still pretty dark outside and the rays of sunlight were only just starting to creep through the clouds. The next thing he noticed was the aching in his throat and the weigh of his own head lying on the desk. He slowly tried to lift himself from the uncomfortable position, groaning loudly at the hammering headache. At first Hal tried to shrug it off with being tired, but when he wanted to make his way to the kitchen so he could get some coffee, he almost tripped because of his shaky legs and his blurred vision, despite the fact that his glasses were still perched on his nose.

He leaned against the door frame, thinking about just going straight back to bed, when an idea occurred to him.

"Snake?" he tried to shout but his voice came out as a croak.

"Huh?" David asked as he was just about to round the corner to the hallway leading to Hal's room. Otacon didn't like asking for help, especially not from a great soldier like Snake, but it seemed like he couldn't make it to the kitchen.

"Could you… uhm… bring me a cup of coffee, please? And… an Aspirin maybe?" he asked in a hurried voice, trying to suppress the coughing that was building in his throat.

"What's wrong?" Snake asked walking closer to where Hal was standing, letting his gaze wander curiously up and down on his body. Damn it, he had hoped Snake would just go to the kitchen without questions. He'll probably get mad when he finds out that I caught something over night, Hal thought.

"N- nothing." Otacon tried, pressing his hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the cough that he couldn't hold back any longer. David, now standing right in front of him, suddenly pressed a hand to Hal's forehead, and he could feel his face growing even hotter than it already was.

"You're sick. Go to bed." Snake demanded and Hal already opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it when he saw David's intense stare. He dropped his shoulders and slowly walked to his bed, setting his glasses down on the nightstand and David followed him into his room.

"God, damn it, Hal! Did you leave the window open all night? It's freezing in here." Snake complained, walking to said window and closing it. When David looked at him again Otacon surrendered pretty quickly and pulled the blanket over his body, feeling the heat rise everywhere. Hal didn't dare to say that he could still work on his computer, because he knew Snake wouldn't let him. When David walked next to the bed, his gaze was fixated on Hal's face, scanning his still red features.

“Wait... sorry, but you better take a shower first. You're really sweaty.” Snake said, already pulling the blanket off of Hal again, who winced at the sudden cold air.

“No, I don't wanna.” Hal breathed out, trying to grip for the blanket, that was unfortunately out of reach now. He felt way too dizzy to stand up again, and all he wanted was to sleep. David didn't even try to discuss this with him and just gripped Otacon and threw him over his shoulder, which made his head spin from the sudden movement, now hanging upside down.

“D- Dave! My head...” he whined, slowly raising a hand to his throbbing temple, rubbing it in small circles.

“Whoa, sorry...” David said, slowly setting Hal down on the bed again. Otacon put his head in his hands, trying to get the throbbing headache to stop. Snake then turned his back to Hal, going down on one knee and gesturing with his hands behind his back.

"Get on, Hal." David demanded, urging him with a wave of his hands. Otacon complied and slowly climbed on Snake's back, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. It seemed like Hal didn't weigh anything to Snake, because he could easily carry him to the bathroom. Otacon had a hard time trying not to doze off on the way again. David set him down next to the shower, looking Hal over with a suspicious gaze.

"Think you can shower on your own?" David asked eventually. Hal's face flushed deep red again.

"Wha- Of course! Get out of here." Otacon stammered, pushing Snake to the direction of the door. When Snake had finally left, Hal did his best to quickly get this over with, getting rid of his sweaty pullover, t-shirt and sweatpants and stepping into the shower. He could barely handle a few minutes in the hot water and his head started spinning again and he had to step out again. He quickly dried himself off and put his clothes on again, closing his eyes in distress every few minutes, trying not to loose his orientation.

When he went out of the bathroom he was surprised by David standing right next to the door, which nearly made Hal jump. Catching his confused look, Snake spoke up.

"I just wanted to make sure you won't pass out in the shower or something." he explained, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Thanks… I- I can walk back by myself, Dave." Hal said, dropping his gaze to the floor as he started going back to his room.

He slipped under the sheets when he noticed a mug of warm tea on his nightstand, smiling when he realized that David probably made it for him. Snake came in just a few minutes later, bringing him a few pills to treat his illness, so he'd get better faster. Hal could barely manage to swallow them before he drifted off to sleep. He didn't notice David's warm hand that stayed on his forehead a bit too long.

And then, the fever came.

Hal woke up with a hazy mind, the vague figure of someone he couldn't make out standing before him. He could hear his name being spoken in a soothing voice, reassuring words following that Hal couldn't quite hear. With a now cold hand pressed on his forehead, Otacon drifted off to sleep again.

He had a dream about Shadow Moses, about the Metal Gear and Alaska. But the most important thing in his dream was Snake, the hero, his comrade and friend. It was a pretty hazy dream and he could only make out certain details. He saw their hands entwined while they were running away from something that he couldn't make out. Hal tripped and fell and he pulled Snake down with him, landing on top of Otacon. Everything got blurry at this point as Hal struggled in his sleep. He could only see David's deep blue eyes, he could only hear his own heartbeat drumming in his ears and he could only feel Snake's hand on his cheek, stroking his thumb over it in a soothing way. The only thing that was missing was the faint smell of cigarette smoke that always lingered around Snake. Everything mixed together in a deep tone of gray and black, when his dream disappeared before his eyes.

 

"How are you feeling?" David asked, turning around in Hal's office chair when he noticed Hal was awake again. Otacon tried to take a deep breath, which ended in some uncontrollable coughing that made his head throb again.

"I feel the way I look, probably…" Hal pressed out when he caught his breath again, rubbing his temples again in an useless attempt to prevent his head from spinning.

"Then you must feel pretty good." Snake said, with a crooked grin on his face. That was probably a weird attempt at a bad joke, but Hal's confused mind wasn't able to connect the dots that quickly.

"What is that… supposed…" Otacon began but then drifted off, pressing his eyes together. He could feel the sweat dripping down his neck and his breathing got more ragged. And even though he didn't eat anything yet, he felt his stomach twist.

"D- Dave, I need-" he stammered, pressing a hand on his mouth. Snake immediately ran out of the room coming back only seconds later with a discarded bucket in his hands, that he dropped to the floor next to where Hal's head was resting. This came just in time for Otacon to lean over the side of the bed and throw up his empty stomach. His face was burning red from the embarrassing situation of David watching him.

When he was done, his eyes were burning so hot that he felt some tears roll down his face. Snake was already standing next to him with a glass of water to wash away the horrible sour taste. He took it with shaky hands, not able to look Snake in the eyes.

"I'm sorry." Hal mumbled with a trembling sigh, gripping the glass hard. And Snake just looked at him with a gentle expression, that Hal could see from the corner of his eye.

“Nothing to apologize for.” David reassured him in his usual calm voice and let a hand wander to Hal's forehead again. “Your fever is still not going down. I'm sure we have something for that here somewhere.” and with that David went through the door and came back with a package of pills a few minutes later. He made Hal take one of them and then settled down on the desk again, working through some files that needed to be checked.

Hal just tried to relax a bit, but couldn't really fall asleep, nor could he do anything else. A few minutes later he just couldn't stand this anymore.

“Dave, I'm bored.” he explained, sipping his tea, his eyes fixed on a spot on David's back. Snake slowly turned around in his chair, searching the room with his eyes, trying to think of something to do. He stood up, walking to the other side of the room, where Otacon's stuff was scattered across the floor.

“Fine, you can watch one of your stupid animes on your laptop or something.” he said, handing Hal the black notebook. Hal was just about to start a discussion about David's insult toward anime, but he wasn't feeling like having this conversation now. So he just flipped open the case of his laptop and pulled his headphones from the nightstand. Hanging the headphones around his neck, Hal started to search for something on his disc drive.

“And no working on that thing! I'll know if you do.” Snake told him with a sharp gaze.

"Yeah, okay…" Hal mumbled, pulling his headphones up. After clicking around for a while he settled for some boring slice-of-life anime, knowing he wouldn't have to think too much while watching it. With some high-pitched voice in his ears he pulled a few tissues from the nightstand for his runny nose.

 

And their day just went on like this, with Hal watching several episodes of some random anime and Snake working through some things on Otacon's desk. David brought some new tea every few hours and made Hal take his medication every now and then.

In the evening Hal's fever started to act up again and after setting his laptop aside he fell into a very light sleep, waking up from coughing every few hours. His vague and hazy dreams continued with the fever and whatever he dreamed of, the images kept shifting back to Snake and him. They were running or they were hiding in a locker together or they were falling, but Hal could always only make out Snake's piercing blue eyes and feel a warm hand pressed to his head. It felt so real and familiar that Hal couldn't tell if it was still just a dream.

He opened his eyes to see David's worried face staring at him. Or at least that's what he thought he saw, because everything was still blurry in this barely lit room. Either Hal's mind was playing tricks on him, or Snake was way too close, still resting his hand on Otacon's forehead.

"Dave…" Hal mumbled in his hazy state of mind, still not sure if this was reality or still one of his dreams. And then Snake gave him one of the warmest smiles that he could offer and Hal could feel his heart beating faster in his chest. Hal decided that this had to be a dream and gripped the collar of David's shirt, pulling down an utterly surprised Snake and crushing their lips together. If this was a fever dream, he might as well enjoy it.

He moved lazily against the other's lips, feeling too weak to push this any further than that. He felt like something was off, but this was quickly pushed to the back of his mind when Snake let his hand wander to the back of Hal's neck, gently stroking his hair while he deepened the kiss. Hal felt like he could pass out any moment, or rather wake up, right? This was still only playing out in his mind after all.

When David slowly pulled back and Hal fell back into his pillows, he finally got what was wrong. The smell of cigarette smoke that was missing before was there, now even on his own tongue, and with this realization he drifted back to sleep again.

Otacon woke up the next day, far earlier than he usually would, and leaned into the warm something that was lying next to him on the bed. It was only after he heard a low grunt, that he realized what, or rather who, was lying next to him.

He sat up, only to take his head in his hands because of the throbbing headache that had started to hammer in his brain already. Hal hadn't slept very well, and he felt like he had done something horrible last night, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Snake rolled on his side, so he could face Hal, greeting him with a crooked grin. Hal had to blink several times to focus his vision.

"What got you in such a good mood so early in the morning?" Hal asked him, confusion and pain written all over his face as he rubbed his temples.

"Oh, nothing." Snake answered and Otacon could only narrow his eyes, sure that something must have happened. But he knew that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get Snake to tell him anything that he didn't want to.

"But maybe you should get sick more often." David mumbled, that evil grin still on his face, rolling off the bed and making his way toward the door to prepare breakfast.

"What? Why?" Hal asked, grabbing a tissue from the nightstand so he could prevent his nose from running.

"I'm just kidding, Hal. I hope you get better soon." were David's last words before he left behind an utterly confused Hal, sitting alone on the bed in his room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading <3
> 
> Can you believe that I wrote this while I was sick myself?  
> Like always big thanks to my editor [tsudoku_library](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tsund0ku_library) ;3
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments or on tumblr ( [ilibra.tumblr.com](http://ilibra.tumblr.com) ) if you want :)


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